Week 44 Life Changing Field Trip! June 14, 2016

I love Hermana Sandison!

Monday night we went to our Family Home Evening that we had planned. When we showed up, Juan Carlos (investigator) was completely drunk!! When we asked him if he was drunk (borracho) he said "No hermanas!" So of course I thought it would be a brilliant idea to draw a line in the sand and make him walk it. I laughed until I had tears rolling down my face. He was so confident in his ability to walk that line, when in reality, the line was like 6 feet to his right... a little off. Then he kept balancing on one foot in a ninja-like pose while saying, "I can do this" then switching feet, "...and I can do this!" We had to post-pone....

Our postponed Family Home Evening (Juan Carlos was sober)

Hermana Bertha (member) wouldn't smile at the camera!

Tuesday: In just one hour Hermana Sandison was able to eat:
8 turkey sandwiches (on small rolls)
1 bottle of grape juice
1 cup of Jello
1 plate of spaghetti
1 Chicken leg
3 potatoes with sauce
3 pieces of candy
1 cookie
Then she says to me, "Lets start a fast!"
Drinks 1 Liter of fast-preparation water
5 minutes later I find her on the stairs puking... she exceeded her maximum capacity.

The poor thing...We laughed about this ten minutes later so don't worry!

Sunday was amazing!! Hermana Samantha was able to come to church for the very first time! (previously her husband has intentionally kept her from coming) What a miracle! I was able to give a talk about being an example and I shared this story:

A little over a year ago my mom asked me if I would take my little brother and his friends to a concert in Salt lake. So we drove up and all went inside the venue. When the music started, it was completely fine! Nothing derogatory, no profanity, just music. Not long after, the entire environment began to change. It became more and more uncomfortable. After texting my mom back and forth I decided it would be best if we left. So I searched through a crowd for my brother. After finding him and telling him we would be leaving he looked at me with a relieved look on his face. He wasn't comfortable either. Later on we sat in the kitchen and talked about the situation. Harrison told us that in the middle of this concert he made a comment to his friends like, "This is kind of inappropriate." Sadly, one of his friends responded by saying, "Yeah, but this is normal!" Upon hearing that my mom, a little frustrated, said, "Well of course it's normal! Just because something is normal does not mean you have to go along with the majority!"

If you read Thomas S Monson's talk titled "Be An Example and A Light" He talks a lot about the fact that We Are Different. And that will only become more and more true as time keeps moving. To be a Disciple of Christ sets you apart from everyone else! To be a Disciple of Christ makes you different! To be a Disciple of Christ makes you happy! So as our standards skew farther and farther away from "normal" we will be asked to be more and more courageous. That's what Heavenly Father needs, the courageous.

Teaching our little family! Good news! Felipe is getting baptized this Saturday!!!

Yesterday was so FUN! At 4am we woke up and rode a three our tour bus to Canchaque. I said about 6 prayers that the bus wouldn't roll off the side of the cliffs..... You would be amazed at what a giant tour bus can do, it's about the same as any other four-wheeler!

Our tour bus almost ran over the poor cows!

We spent a full day as translators for a Park City based non-profit organization called Hope Alliance. Doctors, Optometrists, and volunteers packed suitcase after suitcase of eye equipment and thousands of pairs of glasses, then trekked it all the way to a remote town in the high mountains of Peru. Pretty cool right? So we helped a little over 300 people get glasses! It was extremely gratifying watching 70 year old people see clearly for the first time in maybe their entire lives. It was like rediscovering the world and their smiles stretched from ear to ear! One lady walked in who had a glass eye in her left eye. I helped her back to get her one working-eye checked, we gave her a pair of glasses, and then she asked me, "Excuse me Hermana do you think they could put a stronger prescription (pointing to her GLASS eye) on this eye?" I just stared at her blankly and thought, "Should I tell her she doesn't actually have an eye there?....hmmm probably not." Ignorance is bliss!

Patiently (or some impatiently) waiting for their eye exam. Some children walked over tow hose just to get an eye exam!

How do you feel with these glasses?

Sooooo happy with her new (used and then donated) glasses! How special!

It really was such a cool experience! It even changed my life just a little bit! (: I met some super awesome fun people that I wish I could have spent a little bit more time with. What was so weird to me was when one of the volunteers asked, "So how long did it take until you felt like you were fluent in Spanish?" I have never thought that before! Being fluent? No way! It reminds me of the Language Learning Analogy:

When first learning a language in a foreign country its as if someone has placed a big cardboard box over your head. You are lost, confused, and completely in the dark. But with time, you begin to recognize a few words. Then you can begin to distinguish between words in a sentence. You learn when to say this, or that. Each time, someone pokes a hole in your cardboard box and just a little bit more light begins to peak in. As time goes on, you get more and more holes poked in and you feel less and less confusion. There are only 6 tenses in English and 14 in Spanish. Complicated. Frankly, I still feel like I have pieces of that cardboard box on my head. Until I learn the last 4 hardest tenses I'm not sure I can say I'm fluent! But yesterday converting English to Spanish and Spanish to English was such a fun experience. It's cool to see how far you can come in such a short amount of time!

Well time is up and last week I made it TEN MONTHS! Woohoo! Can you believe it? Me neither. I miss everyone more and more everyday.

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Ingram

The girls

The cute school kids

What a cool grandma she is! She and her husband brought their two grandkids all the way to Peru to have such an awesome experience.

Lane and her mom from Park City, UT. Such fun people to get to know and work with!

This is 14 year old Sonya! She is from the Bay Area in California, her parents both met at medical school and she aspires to be an Orthopedic Surgeon! I was so amazed by her maturity and intelligence. I loved being able to follow her around as she worked and translate for her!

They fed the Translators a cute little breakfast with a view before the world started, and were completely shocked when we turned down their home-grown, ground and brewed coffee!

Hermana Sandison and the coffee plants! Behind her is the little hospedaje that the doctors stayed in.

I love adventuring with my best comp!

The poor donkey!

Week 43 The Mission Roller Coaster Continues June 6, 2016

This week we visited the family and they made us a cute little lunch. Its pretty amazing when you look around at their circumstances, they have pretty close to nothing! For dessert they gave us a big glass of Jello, THE PEOPLE HERE LOVE JELLO. I don't understand what's so great about Jello? Jello and I are not friends... Well Jacinto left the scene for a bit and unfortunately I did not have an emergency bag on me. But my half empty waterbottle seemed just as good, so... plop! plop! In went my Jello and I escaped Jello free. Hermana Sandison was dying....

My Jello water..ha..ha

In a zone meeting we were talking about how we can make daily contact with our investigators:
*Elder raises hand*

"solo me voy a la casa y toco la puerta y digo.. Hermana tengo hambre!"
"I just go to their house and knock on the door and say... Hermana I'm hungry!"
total face-palm moment... Oooh Elders bless their sweet hearts

We took a risk by taking a photo in the Mercado (market)...If only I could take a picture of the chaos!

Hna Sandison in a tiny little portion of the massive mercado

In a lesson with a less active we were singing the opening hymn... note: Let's be honest.. Peruvians can't sing... Well all of a sudden my singing wing woman, (Hermana Sandison) got lazy or something and went Peruvian on me. So when the verse had ended, I wanted to let her know she needed to get her singing act together so I hit her in the face with the hymn book (don't worry Rick it was soft.)
Then everyone just lost it, we laughed too hard to even continue. In the closing prayer the Hermano said, "Thank you for the good humor that the hermanas bring into my life." Everyone just needs to laugh sometimes. (:

The mission roller coaster continues to go up and down. Jacinto came with us to figure out the marriage requirements on Tuesday. On Wednesday we sat down alone with Jady and she immediately broke down and said that she doesn't want to marry Jacinto, that he is violent, and she isn't getting baptized. We were shocked. We asked for advice from president and he said to continue inviting her to come unto Christ. So we will continue to do that and meanwhile focus on the kids! Last week when we asked Felipe if he wanted to come with us to the baptism he responded. "Well duh! If I'm getting baptized I have to see what its like first!" The best (:

Helping Hermana Patty make Brazilian flags for her missionary

I think the more and more that I am out here, the more I begin to realize... Missionaries do not control what happens. We just have trust that, if we do our very best and have good attitudes, we will come out of this experience being changed. We will become disciples of Christ, whether we have a million converts or none. Like a friend once said, "If convert baptisms were an indication of a missionary's success, Jesus was a spectacularly unsuccessful missionary."

Con amor,
Hermana Ingram

I did Hermana Sandison's pageant makeup for Domingo! "On the left we can see Peru (my face) and on the right, the United States" (;

We saw Jaco! In this picture he informed us that, "Hermanas, ever since our last lesson my seek went really bad!" Ahi esta su señal Jaco!

SaveSave

Week 42 Still Together!!! May 30, 2016

Weeks keep flying by!

Shoutout to Hermana Sandison who has officially been a member of la iglesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias for 2 YEARS! Woohoo! Shes doing so great! I don't even have to plug her nose for her when we walk by Starbucks anymore! (; #progress

Greatest news: *Drum roll* HNA SANDISON AND I DIDN'T GET TRANSFERRED
-which is such a blessing not only because we love each other but also because we have got a lot of things to do!

Goodbye party for Elder Gandarillas (assistant) He is awesome!!!

The other day we were teaching our family of 7 about baptism. We taught them how the baptismal covenant is so important! We covenant with God to keep his commandments. Jasinto interrupted us and asked, "So does that mean I need to get married?" We replied, "Well what do you think?" and he said that yes, he feels that he needs to be married. So long story short Hermana Sandison and I will be heading with them to the municipalidad tomorrow to figure out their Matrimonio! How exciting!

Last picture with the district!

I think one of the Top 5 Hardest Things About Being a Missionary is: Being mad at yourself. Surprise! The sad reality is that I have spent a good majority of my mission being upset with myself. Why? When your investigators stop progressing you eventually have to drop them. Every time I have ever dropped an investigator it has left me with feelings like, "What did I do wrong?" I should have done this, or that, or brought this member to that lesson, or picked them up for church on this day. The list is literally ENDLESS. You are only left feeling like a bad missionary. On an opportunity with Hno Silva (future mission pres), I expressed to him these feelings, this was his advice: Get Closure! He compared it to breaking up with your boyfriend. If the two of you don't sit down together and verbally say "its over", you will never have closure! So we put his advice into play, we broke up with Jaco!

NOOOOO we never ever wanted to break up with Jaco! He was THE BEST. Such a fun person to teach. But the time came... the relationship wasn't progressing, we had less and less things in common, our goals were different... "It's not you Jaco, It's me." Just kidding it was all you Jaco! 5 Sundays in a row he committed to coming to church, we did everything we could, and he let us down every. single. time. So we visited him one last time and let him know that he was always invited to come to church but that we wouldn't be visiting him anymore. With all humor aside it was actually heart-breaking. I turned to Hermana Sandison and saw tears streaming down her face. We love our investigators and we want what's best for them! But sometimes it just isn't their time. "We do not preach and teach in order to "bring people into the church" or to increase the membership of the church. We do not preach and teach to persuade people to live better lives .... We invite all to come unto Christ by repentance and baptism and confirmation in order to open the doors of the celestial kingdom to the sons and daughters of God. No one else can do this." And that was it, our mission with Jaco was finished. I have all the confidence in the world that one day, when his hair turns gray, he will end up taking missionary lessons from our children (: My hope and prayer.

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Ingram

2 of our investigators that came to watch the baptism

We love Hermana Orlenka! (She was just called to be a mini missionary)

Hermana Sandison's shortcuts... For the beauty of the earth? 

We found Hermana McRae!! (she's been 6 hours away in Tumbes for almost A YEAR) We were beginning to think that she was a myth or a legend. We love her!!!

About ready to pierce us with its horns

Ready to charge...Torro!!! (like in Spain)

This picture does not show how massive this bull was...

Week 41 Más Miladros! May 23, 2016

HAPPY 20th TO MY BEST FRIEND!!!

Oh my goodness Hermana Sandison's Birthday was a BLAST!
At the clinic (getting flu shots) we shared the chocolate cake with all the missionaries and nurses.

The things we do for blog pictures (: Like taking a cake to the clinic for our vaccines

*stepping into the elevator at the clinic.... awkward silence"
me: HEY EVERYONE IT'S HER BIRTHDAY TODAY!
whole elevator: oh happy birthday! How old are you? Lets sing to her! ..Feliz cumpleano....

Hna Sandison had a record of 3 cakes to the face that day, wow. Normally at my house we don't put our faces in the cakes for sanitary reasons... here its: "mmmm.. eyelash hair and crusty makeup, delicious!"

Cake in the face #1

We took our investigator to a baby shower this week to meet sisters in the ward. At the end Hermana Patty began cutting the celebratory cake when all of a sudden 20 hermanas came walking in an hour late... Hermana Patty: "Oh boy, we could really use a miracle from Jesus right now." (In reference to the feeding of 5000) I laughed for a good 5 minutes.

We got permission this week to visit Geraldine (investigator) in the hospital! There I was once again reminded that I was in a third world country. Scary!

Our investigator Jaco: In a lesson we found out his #1 life-goal is to be a millionaire. For that reason exactly he seems to think that becoming a member of the church means giving up his goal (which is not necessarily the case.) So we talked to Hno Silva (Future mission pres of Guancayo) about it and he said, "Bring Jaco over for FHE on Monday." And that's what we did. Hermano Silva hit it out of the park with his Jaco-directed lesson. He talked about putting God first and Obedience! When God is first everything else will align. He quoted "For I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." I have never heard anyone as bold as Hno Silva (maybe besides Elder Holland) and the boldness really worked! At the end Jaco asked me, "So what exactly are all the commandments again?" I kind of laughed and thought, "Well that sure went well!" I LOVE THE SILVAS! Hermana Ana told us her life story and about joining the church and it was awe-inspiring! We all sat in her kitchen with tears falling onto the kitchen counter top. It's moments like that where I think "I love my mission!"

MIRACLES:
On Tuesday we went on divisions with the sister leaders. I went to Hna Claudia, and Edgar's family of 7. While Hna Sandison went to Samantha.

Lesson with Egdar and Fam: During the lesson I asked everyone how their reading in the Book of Mormon was going and out of no where Jasinto (the father in the house) stood up out of his chair and started testifying to his family that the Book of Mormon was true. My sister leader looked at me like, "What did you guys do?!" and I just looked at her and said, "I have no idea." He said that earlier on he went into the forest by his house and read the Book of Mormon for 4 hours non stop. Every time he has a stomach pain he reads the Book of Mormon and his pain goes away...

Lesson with Claudia: Previously, Claudia has always told us that she doesn't want to be associated with any church. In the lesson she told us, "Quiero ser Mormons" "I want to be a Mormon" my jaw pretty much dropped... again my sister leader looked at me like "I want to be in your area"

When I finally saw Hna Sandison again I ran to her so excited to share the good news but she beat me to the punch. She told me that immediately as they were sitting down for the lesson, Samantha said, "I know all of this is true."She then said why. She said a prayer to find her hidden Book of Mormon and felt the spirit guide her to it. It worked! Before the lesson she prayed, "Heavenly Father if this is where you want me to be, let the missionaries be on time to the lesson today." (I laughed out loud when I heard that, missionaries are never on time!) And they arrived 6:30 Sharp! Hey if that's not a miracle then I don't know what is...

Pray for miracles this week! Example: that Hermana Sandison and I stay together for another transfer (:

BIRTHDAY SHOUTOUT TO HAYDEN! I love you sooooooo much!

Con tanto amor y brazos
Hermana Ingram

Flu shots...ouch!

Cake in the face #2 (She got me back for that one)

Sharing the cake with other missionaries in the clinic

Happy Birthday!

Cake in the face #3

Complete with a piñata!

We met these people on the street last P-day! He is Jessica Lasser's (cute girl from my high school) older brother! Served in this mission about 3 years ago.

Week 40 I SAW A MIRACLE! May 16, 2016

First, HAPPY 20th TO THE BEST COMPANION EVER!!
Hna Sandison completes 2 decades of life on the 19th, what an accomplishment!

Just waiting on investigators

I just want to put my happiness into an email but I find it pretty difficult.... I SAW A MIRACLE!
Ok so we see tender mercies every day but big miracles don't happen too often. Ocho investigadores asistieron a la iglesia ayer!!! I repeat, 8 investigators came to church yesterday!!
To put things into perspective... having even one investigator at church is amazing. My previous record was 4. Hermana Sandison and I were in shock.

Sadly, of those 8 investigators... Samantha wasn't one of them. In our last lesson with her she told us how her husband hid her Book of Mormon and won't let her read it. Slightly annoying... On Sunday he purposely stayed at home rather than working just to keep her from coming to church. It seems that he will be quite the obstacle. I remember that one time I ran the Spartan Beast, a thirteen mile obstacle race... I made it through every obstacle. So whats Samantha's husband compared to that?? (;

Our super cool family we recently found!

We thought we would caption this photo"The Gospel Makes us Happy!" or....wait.."The Gospel makes Hermana Sandison Happy!" note: these people could be smiling and laughing but the minute a camera gets pulled out...SERIOUS FACES! It's a latin thing..

Saturday night Hna Sandison and I were walking to the Internet cafe to update our referrals. As I was walking I had a very strong impression that we needed to turn around and walk down the other street. Impressions like that don't happen to me often, but when they do, I know exactly where they are coming from! So we turned around and walked down the street. A lady, Maria, we had been looking for the week prior walked into her house just as we were approaching. So we knocked the door and she loved hearing about the restoration! She has a little dog named Britney Spears that really liked us. Maria said how much it surprised her that the dog loved us when normally Brittney attacks everyone. That's how she knows we are good people. Hermana Sandison and I laughed, "Yes Hermana Maria, listen to Britney Spears, she is right..."

Our investigator Jaco is driving and the cutest RM Orlenka is in back. Let's just say I'm secretly trying to hook them up (: (first he has to get baptized of course) One day when they have 5 children they'll look back at this picture and thank me (;

Anyways, feeling successful! In our Multi Zone Conference Hermana Rasmussen said, "A happy missionary is a successful missionary" I couldn't agree more.

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Ingram

Look how beautiful Hermana Rasmussen is! I want to look like her when I'm a grandma!

Quick pic with the President after our multizona!

Just trying to sneak a pic with the office elders who were taking their boy band pictures...oh elders..

More Hermanas! Hermana Howell (Rigby, ID), Hermana Thomas (Ogden), Hna Sucari (Lima), Hna Brown (South Jordan)

Hermana Signs, Hermana Sepulveda and Hermana Sandison! (you can see my previous companion in the back) 

The best district! Featuring the assistants Elder Hendrix (Idaho), Elder Gandarillas (Boliva), Elder Rogers (Arizona), Elder Quincho (Peru), Hna Signs (Colorado), Hna Sepulveda (Mapleton), Hna Sandison (Idaho)

Someone was having wayyyy too much fun with the juguetes (toys)

Hermana Sandison: "I'm cold"
Me: "You have been here too long..."
I would ask that prayers be offered when Hermana Sandison returns to a full blown winter in Idaho...

WOOHOO my celebratory, cheesy nine month mission pic! (But not nearly as cheesy as the ones found in the photo printing store) Yikes!...

And my beautiful baby...135 pounds 7 ounces

The delivery was...strenuous:)

 Hermana Sandison sat down for a second to ask for directions, meanwhile this dog tried to sit on her...

As pretty as Piura can possibly get!

Week 39 Happy Hump Week!!! May 9, 2016

ITS HUMP WEEK EVERYONE! (I'll send my 9 month celebration pic next week)

The week went by too fast.. :( and the 30 minute....10 minute.... 7 min... 15 minute..... skype call with my fam (dots represent the internet going out) felt like a milisecond! But even a milisecond makes all the difference, I love them!

What a fun week we had full of fun lessons!
Poor Hermana Sandison got the gripe this week (Pronounced Greepay: the common cold) It's pretty funny what people come up with here. "It's because you're drinking cold beverages", "Stop sitting in front of the fan."

Hermana Sandison: "I can't feel the Spirit with the greepay"
*teaches a lesson with the spirit so strong*
Hermana Sandison: "Wait, I can still feel the Spirit with the greepay"

My compañera is FULL of the best stories, I can't get enough of them. The other day she told me her "last story." She then proceeded to tell me an elaborate story about how the Fijian royalty was overthrown and they took undercover refuge in Twin Falls, Idaho. Her childhood best friend was literally the Princess of Fiji. In conclusion she said, "And that's how I met the Princess of Fiji" I laughed for a good five minutes and that's when I stopped believing in anything she says. Now if either of us tell a story, we end with, "And that's how I met the Princess of Fiji" Poor Hermana Sandison, I'm starting to believe she is actually telling the truth...

Chucaque is a ridiculous fake disease. You contract the disease Chucaque when you get super embarrassed. If you want to get rid of your Chucaque you must then make someone else embarrassed to pass the disease or go visit the voodoo doctor who then uses a newspaper and egg combination to rid you of it. Symptoms: Nasuea, vomiting, stomach aches, head aches.....

Hermana Sandison thought she could use the words avergonzada (embarrassed) and Chucaque interchangeably.... I laughed pretty hard when she asked me why the people laugh at her when she says she's embarrassed (:

Our lesson by the river with our investigators, Claudia and Karen, and Hermana Armanda and her daughter.

The other day we had an amazing experience! Our super cute eager-to-learn investigators Karen and Claudia wanted to take us to their favorite place by the river for their next lesson. So we excitedly went. During our lesson about The Gospel of Jesus Christ they asked us a random question about whether we live chaste lives or not. When we responded with "yes" they kind of laughed in our faces a little. The very next day we stopped by their house to teach them about the Law of Chastity. It was a little nerve racking as we were anticipating some form of rejection. But amazingly enough, their eyes lit up when we taught them about eternal families and the law of chastity. It rang true in their hearts. It made Hermana Sandison and I think back to when they had laughed at us and to now. I think sometimes it may seem like we are alone. But standing up for what you believe in may sometimes lead you to realize that You Are Not Alone.

We were so excited to eat Mother's Day lunch with our mother here in Peru (Hna Rasmussen) that we sadly missed a pic with her as she was FaceTiming her real children ;)

Saturday night we went and visited with our investigator Samantha, a mother of 3. Her younger brother Pier has been visiting with the previous elders for some time now, his baptismal date is in 3 weeks. Samantha's family is very catholic. During this lesson (only our second one) we reviewed Lesson 1 on The Restoration. She started telling us that her husband doesn't want to listen to us anymore. I told her to imagine for a second that the church really was true, that Joseph Smith really was a prophet, that this is where true happiness exists. Would the adversary really just sit on the couch and let it happen? She replied that probably not. I told her that of course not! There will always be opposition, especially against the truth. She then told us that she wouldn't be able to be baptized for at least a couple months to give her husband more time... (at this moment Hna Sandison and I had on shock-happy faces, the shock being that we hadn't yet extended the baptismal invitation.) Samantha went on talking about her neighbor Socorro, (a member in the ward) and her amazing example. She said she has watched how well she gets along with her husband and has seen every Sunday for years Hermana Soccorro gathering up her 5 kids going to church for not just one hour, but three, and then sprinting back home to start cooking. In the words of Samantha "She is an example to all of us, I often ask myself, could I do that?" Can you see how important our examples are? This woman is so prepared for the gospel only by seeing the example of her neighbor. I like to think of the quote, "Preach the gospel often, and when necessary use words."

Se que la iglesia es verdadera! I couldn't say it enough!
Late Mother's Day shout out to my momma, who makes all of the Peruvians say (when I show them my family picture) "Oh su mama es bien guapa!"
Si! I love you mom! Can't wait to hug you in a short nine months!
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Ingram

Someone was excited to eat President's homemade tacos and enchiladas

Amo a mi compañera!

Indoor sand castles....how fun!

A member's son (the poor part of our area)

Peruvian facials.....bad idea!